Nov. I, 1886.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



V3 



MR, LESTER ARNOLD'S BOOK ON 



COFFEE -PLAN TING. 



AND Profit, 



Review of Coffee: its Cultivation 

 BT E. Lester Arnold. * 



Only twenty years ago, and coffee-planting 

 was the best investment in Ceylon, the one 

 grand product of the island ; beside which, 

 all its other exports were separately insignific- 

 ant trifles ; but the destroying demon came and 

 marched in triumph through the land, leaving 

 his mark everywhere, gradually feeding on the 

 life blood of the plant, and extinguishing the 

 hopes of the planter. The invisible germs of the 

 destroyer floated in the air and attached them- 

 selves to every object, and were thus borne to 

 other lands ; it spread to the coft'ee regions of India, to 

 Java, to the Straits Settlements, carrying ruin in 

 its train, and it seems to be a work of time merely, 

 for the same fungus to extinguish this industry, 

 all over the world. We have no authentic in- 

 formation that this enemy has yet reached the 

 coft'ee regions of the West, but we have clear proof 

 now that coft'ee is nowhere a permanent industry. 

 Within living memory, coft'ee was profltably grown 

 on the sea shore in Brazil : it has now receded far into 

 the interior, and still marches westward, leaving 

 (so far as coftee is concerned) a barren exhausted 

 soil behind. We were told long ago, that the Brazil 

 system was unsound and must collapse ; but since 

 that theory was first broached, Brazil has doubled 

 its exports and goes on increasing them, till 

 the markets of the world are swamped and tlie 

 protits of that industry, reduced to the vanish- 

 ing point wherever it is grown, independ- 

 ent of the ravages of Hemileia VustatrLr. How 

 long it may take Brazil to exhaust her re- 

 sources, we have no means of estimating, but they 

 are not inexhaustible and her onward career, may 

 be checked by social or financial collapse, long before 

 she has got to the end of her vast forests ; in 

 the meantime, we cannot credit with very deep 

 wisdom the man, who goes into coffee planting 

 in any part of the world, with perhaps one ex- 

 ception ; the Blue Mountain coffee of Jamaica has 

 never been affected by the fluctuations of the market, 

 and probably never will, unless its production is 

 increased beyond the wants of its own special 

 market. 



It is at such a time, and under such circum- 

 stances, that Mr. E. L. Arnold, an Indian planter, 

 has given himself the trouble of writing a book 

 on coft'ee. If the object of this work was to in- 

 struct those already engaged in administering 

 diminishing crops in a falling market, he will 

 probably be told to instruct a venerable ancestress, 

 in the art of extracting food by means of 

 suction. If on the other hand, the object is 

 to draw fresh capital into the enterprise, there may 

 be some chance of success. There are always 

 plenty of English people ready to open their 

 purses, for the support of any scheme that is 

 plausibly invested with the promise of profit, but 

 writing a book of technical instructions, is not the 

 best way of reaching them. 



Planters first and last, have learned very little from 

 books: the new ' chum ' who comes among them has 

 only to open his eyes and his ears when he meets 

 his neighbours, they talk little else than ' shop ' 

 and he sees around him daily the outcome of 

 the accumulated experience of a long series of years ; 



* PuUli-lieJ l>v Whittinghaui i'< Co., Landon. 



Ill 



so that he has little need to turn to books on coft'ee 

 for professional knowledge. There is only one possi- 

 ble case in which such books are useful, that is 

 when new hands begin to plant in new countries, 

 but such a case is not likely to occur in this 

 century. The early Ceylon planters owed much 

 to the old French refugee, Laborie, and all the 

 books that have been since written, add little to 

 the information, given by him. 



As to tha merits of Mr. Arnold's book, there is 

 little to say. It gives a fair view of the life and 

 work of a planter. His estimates are rather slovenly 

 in details ; and larger in the gross, than tli'e 

 Ceylon rate for the same works. One great 

 slip is cutting pegs, lining, making holes two 

 feet by eighteen inches, and filling them up with 

 fresh surface soil for R25-80 per acre, and then 

 charging Ii'27 for removing the plants from the 

 nursery to the field, setting thera in the spots pre- 

 pared for them and filling in any vacancies that 

 may occur during the season, 



A maiden crop of \ cwt. per acre is more than 

 the average Ceylon yield in our best days, and 703 

 is certainly above the average of present prices and 

 no allowance is made for curing, packmg, shipping, 

 insurance, freight, and London charges ; if the differ- 

 ence between ten rupees and twenty shillings was 

 meant to cover those charges, it might have been so 

 stated. With no guide but Mr. Arnold's figures, 

 the investing capitalist can arrive at no other re- 

 sult than an excess of receipts over expenditure at 

 the end of the fifth year of not less than EHO.OOO 

 and the promise of RSO.OOO per annum for a long 

 series of years. If something like this is the 

 general experience of Indian coft'ee planters, nothing 

 more can be said, but the capitalist who has learned 

 what the coffee fungus has done in Ceylon and that 

 it has a hold in India, will shake his head and 

 button up his pocket. 



_ ^ 



CEYLON UPCOUNTRY PLANTING REPORT. 



DUMBABA WITH EN0U<1]£ RAIN — 1 INE CROPS OF CACAO 

 IN PROSPECT -MANGOES AND CARDAMOMS — TEA-SIFTER 

 AM) 'IF.A-ROLLEB — MOTHER SEIOEL's SVRFP. 



11th Oct. 1S86. 



This fine planting season still continues, and 

 the soutli-wesl seems to be as boisterous as if it 

 were but beginning to blow. That we have had 

 more than enough of rain was manifested 

 by the remark of a Dumbara man the other day, 

 who said that they really were not wanting any 

 more there! Fancy Dumbara in a state of satura- 

 tion and th« inhabitants thereof, calling out 

 ' enough ' ! What fine crops of cacao may not be 

 expected ; in all likelihood, the best they ever have 

 had if the present promise holds. But what suits one 

 product does not suit another, and the tobacco 

 enterprise of that rich val'ey has, I understand, 

 not been quite such a mine, as it might other- 

 wise have been had the usual weather obtained. 

 Another season, let us hope may make up for 

 this. 



I suppose it is one effect of tlie abnormal 

 weather that our mango trees arc full of blossom 

 which may mean another crop, whereas wo usually 

 have only one. In the old days a fine mango 

 blossom was a jiretty sure toki-n that there was 

 going to be a go n\ coffee one : but then the 

 mango flowered in llie early months of tlie year, 

 and to see it in bloom in October was not looked for. 

 In a (luiet way, there is going on at present a 

 good dral of Cardamom planting, and those wiio 

 are doing this are hopeful of reaping the reward 

 of their faith in having a linn maiket to send 

 to with good ])riees, when tlie timf; of 1 ar;cst 



